We found warmer weather in Montreal only about 3 hours away by bus. As soon as we arrived we liked the feel of the city and this feeling continued for all our visit. Our first accommodation (we changed part way through our visit) was somewhat out of the city centre which required a lot of healthy walking. Montreal has a mountain "Mont Royale" which gives a wonderful view of the city and has many wonderful walking paths and roadways. We set off one afternoon to climb Mont Royale and found a world championship cycling race in progress. It was great to watch but unfortunately their were no Aussies for us to cheer on.

Montreal has a very picturesque waterfront area on the St Lawence River. It is hard for us Australians to grasp the massive amounts of water Canada has in its lakes and rivers. Huge ships can go all the way into the centre of Canada via the Great Lakes, Rivers and Canals.

After 3 nights we moved to a hostel (cheaper and a bit more central) for our last 2 nights

. Hostels are great in that they have fully equipped communal kitchens for guests use and a real social atmosphere. Often they now have private rooms with a double bed, as this one in Montreal did, more suitable for couples of our vintage who need a good nights sleep!

Montreal, like Quebec City, has a very French feel and mostly in the street you hear French spoken although everybody can speak English. When shopping for groceries, labels are in both French and English and when you ring on the phone it is answered in French until you speak English and then the person will switch to English. We figured the immigrants (there are a lot of them) would find it difficult having to learn two languages in their adopted city.

Our last night in Montreal was VERY special. Montreal is the birthplace of "Cirque Du Soleil" known in Australia as Circus de Sol when it travels to the capital cities and to other places around the world. It is a world famous circus with no animals and all acts centre around amazing human acrobatic and juggling feats. Montreal has a training school for future performers and some 2,000 people are either in training or currently performing in shows in Montreal and around the world. The show was quite astounding. We didn't consider beforehand, though, that being in Montreal it would all be in French, so we actually didn't understand what was being said, but it did not detract from its magnificence. Unfortunately, as with most shows, no picture taking was allowed.